Hot Topics:

Just how bad is the NFL's image problem?

By David Pevear, dpevear@lowellsun.com

Updated:
07/15/2014 06:30:52 AM EDT

I recently overheard two baseball scouts talking before a game. They compared opinions on certain players. They moved on to chitchatting about sports in general. One scout said to the other: "Our game certainly has its share of jerks. But at least we don't have all these thugs getting arrested all over the place."

I believe Aaron Hernandez had a court appearance that day.

OK, I get it. The NFL has an image problem. But will this image problem ever become a serious problem for the NFL so long as it seems to have zero effect on the violent and sophisticated game's gargantuan popularity?

And regarding that image of gun-toting sexual predators who drive way too drunk and way too fast, 2014 has so far been a relatively law-abiding year for NFL players -- with the emphasis on relatively.

By my count, using USA Today's NFL arrest database, Baltimore Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith last Saturday became the 21st NFL player arrested this year when charged with failing to obey police officers' orders and becoming belligerent during an incident at a Baltimore nightclub. He is the fifth Raven to be arrested this year. No Patriots player has been booked this year.

To this point last year, almost twice as many NFL players had been arrested, give or take an assault or DUI. The 2014 numbers do not include the NFL owner, Jim Irsay of the Colts, who was arrested in March for driving under the influence of prescription drugs.

The NFL is no doubt taking a bow over the fact no murders have yet been attributed to any NFL player who was on an active roster last season.

Advertisement

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith did allegedly joke about having a bomb while going through security at Los Angeles International Airport in April. He was arrested, but will not be charged, though in another case Smith faces sentencing for illegal possession of three assault rifles.

Which brings us to the Patriots, who will open training camp on July 24, having in their focused minds distanced themselves from the mother of all alleged NFL criminals -- their former tight end Aaron Hernandez. Beyond Fortress Foxboro, though, Bob Kraft's brand still is being stained by unavoidable references to "former Patriots tight end" and "alleged triple murderer," one to whom the supposed smartest team in the universe gave a $12.5 million signing bonus only weeks after Hernandez is alleged to have participated in a 2012 double murder in Boston.

In one of his finest hours as Patriots coach, Bill Belichick last July peeled back the hoodie and bared his humanity during a press conference two days before training camp opened. "A young man lost his life and his family has suffered a tragic loss," said Belichick, who added that "this goes way beyond being a football issue. This is real life."

Belichick spoke these words a month after Hernandez was accused of executing Odin Lloyd in an industrial park not far from Hernandez' North Attleboro home.

The Patriots' captains addressed the Hernandez situation without talking specifically about Hernandez on the first day of practice. Then it was back to football.

Hernandez had been removed as a distraction for a team that would six months later lose in the AFC title game.

Much has changed since Belichick last July said "a young man lost his life." The Hernandez body count has since risen to three, prosecutors allege.

And with Hernandez's trial in the Lloyd case tentatively scheduled to start Oct. 6 (though that is unlikely), the Patriots just can't seem to shake loose from their high-risk 2010 fourth-round draft pick out of Florida.

Hernandez's defense team recently asked the secretive Patriots -- who don't even publicly acknowledge their players' bodies include knees and shoulders -- to turn over its client's medical records. The Patriots did so, handing over 317 pages worth.

But the Patriots have held back on voluntarily releasing their psychological assessment and pre-draft scouting report on Hernandez.

Those contain trade secrets, according to the team's lawyer, that could cause competitive harm to the Patriots.

Or great embarrassment. Those reports might make the Patriots look really stupid. Now that would be a serious image problem.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sun. So keep it civil.